The Mice Will Play
The Mice Will Play is a 1938 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery. Plot Inside Dr. I.M. Nutts' building, is a small mouse hole at the side. The mice slowly open the hole and take a peek, and upon seeing nobody around they slowly creep from the hole and sneak around the room until they decide to test their luck by shouting, then hurriedly run back into just made mouse holes. When they get no response everyone comes out to play and have some fun. They play with the medical equipment located around the room, such as looking at bacteria slides through a microscope, playing with a stethoscope and finding out the results of taking heart pills, and various other things. Unknown to the mice, however, a very hungry cat has been spying on them. They also do not hear the poor cries of a girl mouse on the other side of a nearby door and continue playing as the cat creeps into the room. The mice continue to play, with one mouse checking out an eye chart while another looks through an X-ray machine. Eventually, the mice sneak up on the lead mouse of the group, preparing to prick him with a big needle right in the butt as he is distracted, but an audience member stops them. Annoyed the mice toss the injection aside while grumbling and storm off. The cat meanwhile is preparing to eat the girl mouse inside the cage. She quickly writes a letter to the others in hopes of them finding her. She throws it through the opened window of the door and right to the main mouse, who sees it and impulsively rushes into the room to save her. With ease, he manages to free her from the cage and when she attempts to embrace and kiss him, he forces her off as she thanks him for help. Unknown to the both of them, the cat is sneaking back up. As they make their way to be with the other mice, Susie tries to tell the main mouse, Johnny, how she feels but he only thinks she is being weird and asks her what her problem is. But when Susie manages to reveal her feelings to him, he happily reciprocates and the two mice decide to wed. The cat continues to sneak up on all of the mice as the two of them share a kiss and Susie goes on to reveal her plans to have a lot of little baby mice. The cat overhears this and he decides he will wait, rather than eat them now. Availability * (1997) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, Side 2, Early Avery (1995 Turner dubbed version) * (2006) DVD - Jezebel (1995 Turner dubbed version) Notes * Dr. I.M Nutts is a play on "I am nuts", or "I'm nuts". * The carving the mice make into the wood "Gone with the Wind", is a reference to the book and film of the same name. * The original BR ending is lost due to the dubbed version release on LaserDisc. However, the original BR ending survives on an AAP print from CN Latin America. * The original opening titles where found on Ebay in 2007 from 36 Tex Avery titles frames. * The original title card depicts a cat chasing a mouse. However, the cat in this cartoon did not chase the mice at all. Something like this would later happen in the 1953 cartoon Ant Pasted whereas it depicts Elmer Fudd in his hunting clothes but never wore them at all. Gallery Screen_Shot_2012-12-19_at_09.47.43.png|BR Reissue WB31p.jpg|Original titles TMW1.png TMW2.png TMW3.png TMW4.png TMW5.png TMW6.png TMW7.png TMW8.png TMW9.png TMW10.png TMW11.png TMW12.png TMW13.png TMW14.png TMW15.png TMW16.png TMW17.png TMW18.png 10370427_277401319099999_4471261694511660041_n.jpg|Lobby Card Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Tex Avery Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Shorts Category:1938 Category:Mice Category:Cartoons written by Jack Miller Category:Cartoons animated by Sid Sutherland Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons animated by Irven Spence Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Berneice Hansell Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package Category:Cartoons with missing Leon Schlesinger credits Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist